Flora Graham

Dan Bern

Remember that time that Tim got Dan Bern to sit with us at the Vancouver Folk Festival? That rocked, man.

Yeah, sorry, this has nothing to do with Christmas, but he has a great song called "Jerusalem". (Plus Tim looks like the Archbishop of Canterbury.)

Thanks to Stewie for the Tag Board idea!

Keep it clean!

CLICK HERE for a few more photos of Birmingham life.

I'm very sorry that I didn't end up with any photos of Bonfire Night (a.k.a Guy Fawkes Day but nobody calls it that)--so I created the to-scale recreation at left. I went to a big celebration at a city park, where they had lit the biggest bonfire I have ever seen (by about a gazillion times). Can you imagine them ripping up a thousand square feet of Queen Elizabeth park and building a hundred foot high bonfire there? No, I didn't think so. And that's why it rocks here! There's burning embers falling on little kids and huge logs (not logs! trees!) rolling off in showers of sparks 500 feet into the air and stuff. Notice the people fleeing the flames in the image. There was also a carnival with rides, a huge fireworks display, and a loud and weirdly inapropropriate dance-music concert there. Get it up ya, Guy!

Pubs

I was hoping that the pubs here would be as interesting and numerous as in Glasgow. However, this is not the case, as you can guess from my initial use of the word "hoping".

Pubs here are built as follows:
1. Take a 17th century pub
2. Rip out the inside and put a White Spot in it
3. Put some fake 17th century pub decorations on the wall

Voila! This is known as "a carvery" (due to the carved-meat-based menu) and seriously they are everywhere. They have Heineken and Guinness extra cold on tap, and nothing else.

It is truly sad. I am thinking of becoming a publican so that I can have a proper pub to go to. Sometimes it takes an outsider to point out when things have gone horribly, horribly awry. Like in "Brave New World". That's me, I'm the cave guy.

Flo's Move By the Numbers

Days here: 49
Tuna sandwiches eaten: 75
Ratio of takeaways advertising Southern Fried Chicken to those advertising Fish & Chips : 10:1
Times gotten to the bus stop just as bus has pulled away and then waited 20 minutes for next bus: 100
Times taken bus to wrong town: 1
Times been asked "What?": 3,964
Times been asked "Y'alright?": 1,425
Amount that my English bed is shorter than my Canadian bed: 5 inches
Amount that it is narrower: 24 inches
Times I have fallen out of bed: 1.5
Times people have asked if I am an American: 0
Times people have expressed anxiety that I would be angry if they did so: 20
Times people have asked me why I would leave America and come to Birmingham: 1,000

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Wednesday, December 25, 2002

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

Thursday, December 05, 2002

Wednesday, December 04, 2002